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Get ready for a taut mystery-shocker that will keep you at your wit's end and at the edge of your seat. Popular high school senior Virginia Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) survives a freak accident, but suffers from memory loss and traumatic blackouts. As she attempts to resume a normal life, something terrible is happening - her friends are ruthlessly murdered one-by-one. Will she be the next victim or is she the killer? The terrifying truth is finally uncovered at Virginia's 18th birthday party and you're invited.

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Happy Birthday to Me typifies the horror genre prior to the self-reflection and irony that saturated the genre in the late '80s and '90s. A solid cast, decent acting, a well-written script, and relatively high production values result in a solid movie that is engaging on its own in addition to offering a glimpse into the history of '80s horror. The plot follows the rules of the genre (later parodied in such films as the Scream and Scary Movie series). A number of teenagers (played by actors who appear visibly older than their characters) from an elite prep school get into mischievous sexual situations fueled by alcohol and pot smoking. As teens start to disappear, murdered in a variety of violent ways, the film suggests a number of suspects. Is the killer the troubled star played by Melissa Sue Anderson who lost her overbearing, social-climbing mother in a car accident that she survived? Or is it the stern school mistress, the wacky, cool social clown, the social misfit, or none of the above? The film keeps you guessing until the final scene. Happy Birthday is a must-see for serious fans of the horror genre and this release is a solid digital mastering of the movie. Hardcore fans should note that the DVD release was not able to secure the rights to the original soundtrack so this version features an alternate soundtrack of largely nondescript '80s electronic music. --Brian Saltzman

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Hollywood is a tough town. All one need do is look at the career of J. Lee Thompson to prove this statement. This is the guy who directed "Cape Fear," not the remake with Nolte and De Niro but the frightening original with Peck and Mitchum. As the years went by things began to turn south for Thompson. Things got so bad that he ended up directing pictures for Cannon, the company that churned out all of those low budget, ultraconservative shoot 'em action films in the 1980s with the likes of Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff, and Charles Bronson in the lead roles. In fact, Thompson and Bronson worked together on several of these potboilers, including "10 to Midnight," "Death Wish 4: The Crackdown," and "Kinjite: Forbidden Secrets." By the time Thompson passed away in 2002, only critics remembered him for his earlier, more important efforts. But Thompson made another crucial contribution to American film, specifically American horror films, when he lensed the 1981 slasher flick "Happy Birthday to Me." Why is this motion picture worth mentioning? Because it is one of the few giallo films made outside of Italy--and made by an Englishman.

Virginia Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) just wants to fit in at the Crawford Academy, one of those noxious private schools filled to the rafters with snotty rich kids. Ginny, as Virginia is known to her friends, does manage to worm her way into a group called "The Top 10," which apparently refers to the ten biggest jerks in school. It's a bit surprising Ginny pulled off this social coup since a car accident that claimed the life of her mother put her in the hospital with a brain injury. Only now is she slowly reintegrating herself back into society, with the occasional help of her psychiatrist Dr.Read more ›

Arriving in the wake of such holiday themed slashers as "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th", "Happy Birthday to Me" put a surprising twist on a tried-and-true genre upon its release in 1981, even if audiences and critics alike ignored it. With Oscar nominated director J. Lee Thompson (the original "Cape Fear") at the helm, there's a certain touch of class to the film not seen in much of the lower-rent slasher fodder that was released around the same time. The plot twists and turns in unexpected (and sometimes confusing) ways as the body count rises, paving the way for an ending that you truly never see coming.

Melissa Sue Anderson plays Virginia, a troubled teenager on the verge of her 18th birthday. Virginia is part of a tight-knit clique known as the Top Ten. Rich, snobby and selfish, these are the sort of characters whose deaths are more than welcomed in a horror movie, but rather than being stalked by a guy in a hockey mask or a freak with a chainsaw, this crew appears to be under attack by one of their own. Meanwhile, poor Virginia is having as much trouble sorting out her troubled memories as she is trying to fit in. Her psychiatrist, played by Glenn Ford, tries his best to counsel her, but as the bodies piles up, Ginny grows more insane and unstable by the minute.

Although the artwork depicting a man being stabbed in the throat with a shish-kabob indicates that this is a bloody gorefest, nothing could be further from the truth.Read more ›

I, like every horror movie enthusiast, eagerly awaited the arrival of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME" on DVD. After repeated viewings, I've grown to appreciate this early predecessor to Wes Craven's "SCREAM". That film gave absolutely no credit to this as being one of the rare horror films that redefined the many plot twists, in-jokes and even a few red herrings so popular now in this genre. Now, Columbia/TriStar did the unthinkable: they completely ditched the chilling Lance Rubin/Bo Harwood score in favor of a pointless, even cliched new score. How bad is it? They even play a mock-Olivia Newton-John song to run in the opening credits!!!

How dare they?! This film had one of the finest scores for any horror film and then some! Did Columbia/TriStar completely assume that we, the smart buying public, wouldn't notice? Or did they have so little faith in the buying power of this film, that they decided to take us for idiots!!

I accepted the cheesy "girl posing with a knife in the birthday cake" art on the cover because, by today's standards, the original 1980 cover design is a little too disturbing. (They at least had the good sense to include it in the DVD's case) But why in the sweet name of Peter, did they foul up a perfectly good score?! It almost makes the film unwatchable.

P.S. Anyone reading this, should start a letter campaign to Sony Pictures, demanding they release "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME" with the original score! Whose with me?

If you've seen this film before, and recently purchased the DVD release, popped it into your player, and got the creeping feeling of something being not quite right, you're not alone... the movie on this disc is not the same as when originally released as the studio releasing this film to DVD has changed some of the musical scoring (substituting an inappropriate disco-like score in some parts)...I'm having the strangest sense of déjà vu...oh wait, a similar thing was done on the recent DVD release of Return of the Living Dead II (different studio). Seems kind of sad that for what has to be one of the biggest markets for DVDs (the United States), you'd think companies could see fit to try and preserve the original elements of a film, rather than changing it (for whatever reason), releasing it (without any warnings or notice of change on the packaging), and slapping a hefty price tag on the box (this DVD is one of the more expensive one's I've seen in awhile).

Happy Birthday to Me (1981), directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown), stars Little House on the Prairie's own Melissa Sue Anderson in one of her few film appearances (she mostly works in the medium of television).Read more ›

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I watched this tonight, and they did, as promised, restore the original musical score. In fact, if anything, it's even more melodic and beautiful, owing to the greater clarity of the sound on a dvd as compared to the old vhs copies. All in all, this was worth a lot more than they were charging,... Read More